One of the bigger difficulties when it comes to sizing youth baseballers is finding the right sized glove.
If you’re a parent or a youth coach, you’ll know that kids grow… quickly, that means that sometimes you’ll have to update equipment every few seasons. There are different gloves for different positions, which makes the selection process even more difficult.
But what happens if your child (or you) has smaller hands?
In this article, I’ll find the best baseball glove for small hands and suggest a few options for you to consider when choosing a glove.
Specifically, we’ll be looking at the following gloves:
- Vinci Youth Baseball Glove BRV1950 – Best for older players with small hands
- Nokona Alpha Select Youth Glove – Our pick
- Wilson A900 – Best value for money
Pro Tip: Avoid the temptation to buy a bigger glove in the hope that your child will grow into it. Purchasing a glove that’s too big will make it almost impossible to catch some balls.
Top 5 Best Baseball Glove For Small Hands
OUR TOP PICK
The Specifics:
- Size: 12”
- Position: Infield/Outfield
- Color: Black
- Pro Grade pre-treated leather
- H-Web
- Open back
Why it’s great
The Vinci BRV1950 is one of the best youth baseball gloves on the market. This 12-inch glove comes with soft leather that is easy to break in along with a palm protector.
For the price that you’re paying, the glove is awesome quality.
The glove also offers H-webbing, so you can always keep your eye on the ball while you’re playing.
However, if you’re a teenager or adult with small hands, this is one of the best gloves that you can buy.
EDITORS CHOICE
The Specifics:
- 11.25″ ± Pattern
- Modified Trap
- Open Back
- Hand: Regular & Full-Right
- Weight: ~475g
Why it’s great
If you want the best glove out there, Nokonas Youth Performance series is a great choice. The gloves come with the top-of-the-line leathers that their adult lines use, Stampede and Buffalo. These leathers are combined for ideal structure, weight, and to make a glove very easy break-in.
The gloves are incredibly flexible as soon as you purchase them and will last years.
Nokonas Youth Performance series combines two Nokona-exclusive types of leather makes the gloves ready for play right from the shelf.
BEST VALUE
The Specifics:
- 11.5″ H-Web construction
- Pedroia fit made to function perfectly for players with smaller hands
- Brown with White
- Double palm construction (front side)
- Full leather construction, low profile heel
Why it’s great
While this glove is the lest expensive on the list, it doesn’t mean that the quality is poor. The Wilson A900 series is a good baseball glove, especially for players with small hands.
The Pedroia fit means that you can wear the glove with smaller hands without an issue. Watch this video that explains the Pedroia fit in greater detail.
Basically, this glove has a small hand opening and smaller finger-stalls so you can easily control the baseball.
The glove is versatile, has a deep pocket, is made with real leather and will perform a lot better than other gloves in this price range.
How to measure your hand for a glove?
So, you know that your child is small for their age, but how do you know just how big their glove needs to be?
First you need to know how a glove is measured. As you can see from the video below, the way that we measure a glove is from the tip of the glove, all the way to the bottom of the palm.
This measurement is important to know, as when you’re buying a glove, it can be tricky to choose the right size.
According to LiveStrong, when measuring your child’s hand for a baseball glove you should measure their finger and add two inches to the measurement for the appropriate finger size.
However, as we know, it is important to consider that a glove is measured from the tip to the bottom of the palm.
What I suggest, is to measure your child’s hand from the base of their palm to the fingertip of their middle finger.
Once you have the measurement of the whole hand, add two inches and that should be the glove measurement you’re looking for.
The extra two-inches is included to give the players a little wiggle-room in their glove but also make it easy to close their hand and control the ball.
Generally, youth baseball gloves come in sizes ranging from 9 inches to 12 inches but it will depend on the size of your child’s hands.
Youth gloves are not only smaller in size, but the fingers are thinner too, ensuring a good fit for a player with small hands.
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